It is always fun when a big event comes to town... and living here in Track Town USA, the event is most often going to be an elite athletics spectacle. Last summer the city of Eugene, home of Hayward Field (the Mecca of American track and field), hosted the U.S. Olympic Trials for the first time since the city was the site of the selection for the ill-fated 1980 U.S. Olympic team that would never see Moscow. This year the American stars returned to Hayward once again to square off for the U.S. Outdoor Track and Field Nationals. And along the way a couple of hometown heroes punched their tickets to Berlin in September for the World Championships. 

Andrew Rupp won his last race wearing the green and yellow of the Oregon Ducks, finishing the 10,000-meter race in 27:52:53 to claim the national championship and a return to international competition after his showing at the 2008 Beijing Olympics. Other Ducks who will be joining Rupp are Ashton Eaton, who took second in the decathlon, and Rachel Yurkovich, who was runner-up in the women’s javelin. Other Oregonians who will be traveling to Germany in a few months include defending American champion Nick Symmonds of Oregon Track Club in the 800-meter race; Kara Goucher (who won the 5000-meters but will only be racing the marathon in Berlin); the Oregon Track Club trio of Matt Tegenkamp, Chris Solinsky and Evan Jager in the 5000. Two who missed their chance included the University of Oregon’s Andrew Wheating in the 800-meter race, who was forced to scratch due to a left calf injury, and defending long-jump champion and Eugene resident Jesse Williams, who couldn’t replicate last year’s performance and settled for fourth, just outside the qualification. Despite the absences of the Ws, Oregon acquitted itself quite well on home track... 
 

But the fun doesn’t stop just outside one’s municipality. Take last week’s column, for instance. Considering the fact that Spain had a charmed 2008, dominating most all the major sporting events of the year, their falling off what was ultimately a pace which could not be maintained forever seemed at the time to be a sign that the changing of the calendar had altered the nation’s fortunes. Rafael Nadal, after all, is not at Wimbledon, and Spain’s soccer team went and lost to a bunch of Americans. One Spaniard, though, is managing to restore some of his country’s pride. 

Aschwin Wildeboer Faber, a 23-year-old backstroke specialist born in Sabadell to Dutch immigrant parents, just defeated the most recent world record of two-time Olympic medalist Aaron Piersol in the 100-meter backstroke during his first leg of Spain’s 4x100-meter medley relay at the Mediterranean Games in Pescara, Italy. Wildeboer Faber, who took seventh in the event in Beijing, shaved sixteen-hundredths off the world-record time of 52.54 which won Pierson the 2008 Olympic gold. But the Spaniard, who set a national record with his seventh-place Olympic finish (53.51) as well as the short-course world record over 100-meters with a time of 49.20 during December’s Spanish Short-Course National Championships, has been steadily improving. The son of the Danish national swimming coach Paulus Wildeboer and brother to Olaf, who has used his Dutch ancestry to swim for Holland, Aschwin has steadily improved since appearing at the 2004 Athens Olympics as an 18-year-old. Perhaps this is a sign of good things to come, perhaps a Pierson/Wildeboer duel in London? 

We don’t even have to speculate, though. All around the world there are some hallowed events either coming to their exciting conclusion or preparing for their commencement. We saw the Americans hold their own against several of the world’s most decorated soccer squads, and a clear path is set for the home crowd to witness its dream final at Wimbledon. And, in a departure of the past few editions when at most one previous winner started the race, four different Tour de France champions will line up at the start of the opening stage in Monaco on Saturday, all with visions of another maillot jaune awaiting them in Paris three weeks later. So, like Wildeboer, let’s dive right in and set a good pace through this week’s A Non-Traditional Sports Fan in America!

 
 

The All-England Lawn Tennis and Croquet Club have hosted the world’s oldest tennis tournament at its home in the southwest London suburb of Wimbledon since 1877, and there have been quite the quantity of history made here on the grass courts of the venerable British venue. This year, despite the absence of the defending men’s champion, we’ve reached the semifinals of the 2009 edition with some history still on the line. Venus Williams, facing Dinara Safina in the semifinals, could become the first three-peat champion since Steffi Graf did it from 1991-1993. Her sister Serena or Russia’s Elena Dementieva will get the chance to prevent that in the final should Safina fail to pull off what would certainly be an upset -- and when you’re the number-one ranked women’s player in the world, as Safina currently is, it really is something amazing to be considered the underdog!

 

On the other side of the draw, Roger Federer set himself up to surpass Pete Sampras as the all-time Grand Slam champion should he conquer Wimbledon for a sixth time. Two more victories would get him the record after he tied Sampras with a long-sought victory at Roland Garros. Standing in his way, though, is Tommy Haas, who very nearly derailed Federer at the French Open in the fourth round -- taking the first two sets out of the Swiss champion at the same point where Nadal’s downturn began with his upset loss to eventual Federer finals foil Robin Soderling.

 

For a while, it seemed as though it would be Novak Djokovic who would be the player to challenge Nadal and Federer, creating a three-way battle for the top spot that could live on for years. But this season marked a quick passing in the ranks, as Scotsman Andy Murray surpassed the Serb just in time for his national Grand Slam. Murray, born a week apart from Djokovic on opposite sides of Europe, made his splash onto the scene at the opposite end of the 2008 season. Whereas Djokovic’s coming-of-age moment was his victory in January’s Australian Open, for Murray it was his advancement to the final of the U.S. Open before bowing out to Federer in August. Murray has blossomed in 2009, playing consistent tennis that picked up enough ATP points to overtake Djokovic for the third ranking, and is on the cusp of winning a Grand Slam of his own -- and the Grand Slam for his own compatriots.

 

What a once-improbable tale that would be if Murray were to take on and defeat longtime top dog Federer to break the British curse on home soil. But if any man were to do it, one would have to say that Murray is the best candidate to win Wimbledon since Fred Perry in 1936. Perry, who won three years in a row at Wimbledon in addition to three U.S. Championships and the Australian and French Championships once apiece, was the last British champion. While stars have followed, none have emerged with the title regardless of the setting. But the sting has proven especially painful once June rolls around and the venues switch from clay to grass, the last remnants to avoid pavement throughout the world serving as prestigious hosts for the Wimbledon preparatory tournaments. The one at Queen’s Club in London, operated since 1890, had suffered nearly as long a drought as Wimbledon itself -- Henry Austin pulled the feat off last in 1938, just two years after Perry’s last victory across town. The drought lasted, that is, until Murray broke it this year. Nadal followed the path to Wimbledon glory via Queen’s Club last year; could Murray take the same route and lift the spirits of his entire nation this year?

 

He was going to have to face a four-time Queen’s Club champion in his own right, regardless of whether it was the American Andy Roddick or the Australian Lleyton Hewitt. The pair had Queen’s Club on a stranglehold from 2000 to 2007, denying the last great British hope -- Tim Henman -- of his chance at equaling Austin. In the quarterfinals at this year’s Wimbledon, it was Roddick besting Hewitt for the right to try to end Murray’s charmed run.

 

So, regardless of who takes the title, it will be a showcase for the ages. Stay tuned through this weekend...

 
 

... because we might be blessed with as much championship excitement as we were last weekend a hemisphere away in South Africa. Johannesburg was the setting for what ultimately ended in a 3-2 victory for perennial powerhouse Brazil over the revelatory American squad who nearly pulled off a second upset for the ages.

 

I won’t go into too much depth on that match here (follow the above link for thoughts from the evening after the game), but I do certainly want to mention once again how the Americans can hold their head high despite their effort falling short. After defeating world number-one and Euro 2008 champion Spain in the semifinals 3-0, with Jozy Altidore and Clint Dempsey elevating the United States to their first FIFA-sanctioned international final, anything in the match with Brazil would’ve seemed icing on the cake.

 

Expectations got far bigger than they needed to be when Dempsey and Donovan put the Americans up 2-0 at halftime of the final. But Brazil, despite the scoreboard, was in firm control of the match throughout the first half, and the three goals in the second half which put the South American champions over the top were more surprising for the fact that they didn’t come earlier in the match than for the fact that they came at all. Project 2010 is firmly on pace, and the team can go into World Cup qualifying with confidence, knowing that a return to South Africa next year could yield more positive results...

 
 

So far we’ve spoken of British and Swiss and Spanish, Americans, Brazilians, Australians... sounds just about right considering it is Tour de France time. A full Tour de France primer here at Informative Sports tomorrow, but until then let’s take a sneak peek at a few select topics that particularly interest me about this year’s contest:

 

• Who’s taking charge at Astana? As soon as Lance Armstrong announced his comeback to the sport after three years of retirement, the talk inevitably turned toward whether or not he would reunite with director Johan Bruyneel -- and what it would do to Alberto Contador, the 2007 Tour champion who was Bruyneel’s new champion. Well, Astana signed Lance, and both he and Contador (along with 2007 third-place rider Levi Leipheimer and twice-runner-up Andreas Kloden) will be riding for the Kazakh squad from Monaco to Paris. Will this work like the La Vie Claire teams of Hinault, LeMond and Hampsten; or will we see the factional strife seen on so many French teams during the national-team era?
• Has Cadel Evans seen his best chances pass in vain? With Armstrong, Contador, 2008 winner Carlos Sastre (Cervelo TestTeam) and retroactive 2006 winner Oscar Pereiro (Caisse d’Epargne, awarded win after Floyd Landis tested positive for exogenous testosterone) all coming to the race fighting to return to the pinnacle of the podium, the runner-up of 2007 and 2008 must now wonder if he can ever become the first Australian to win the Tour. Evans, riding for a Silence-Lotto team that fails year after year to provide and maintain a sufficiently-stocked team to assist Evans to the yellow, is forced to do much more than guys at the powerhouses like Astana and Saxo Bank. With yet another understaffed squad being led by the Aussie, 2009 might be the year where Evans looks back at the end of his career and discovers the beginning of the end for his chances at Tour de France glory.
• Who will challenge Cavendish now? Now that Tom Boonen went off and threatened his sizable legacy once again, following up a second consecutive Paris-Roubaix victory with another dabble into the nose candy. Though not officially sanctioned out of competition by the UCI, Tour de France race organizer Amaury Sport Organization decided once again to deny the Belgian sprinter a chance to win a second maillot vert for the top daily points winner. Cavendish in Boonen’s absence managed to win four stages out of the fourteen he raced before dropping out early to focus on the Olympics. This year, the Manxman has already said he wants to fight through to Paris, and many have said it will be his jersey to lose. But that doesn’t mean that a former winner like Thor Hushovd, Oscar Freire or Robbie McEwen will let him walk away unscathed with the spoils.

 
 

So whether you look near or far, you are bound to find some fascinating athleticism to pique your fanatical interest. It could be a world away or right in your backyard -- the trick is to keep your eyes open at all times. Blink and you might miss a searing forehand for the title. Blink again, and you might’ve missed the back-and-forth struggle of soccer’s pre-World Cup summer showcase. Blink this weekend, and the decisive opening time trial will already have passed. Who knows what you might miss if you blink next?