Volume XIX

To be honest, the past week has been a blur for me, as the fifteen dozen riders of the most elite peloton in the world of cycling traipse their way across France. If you haven’t seen it already, I’ve been doing daily coverage of every stage over in the all-new Non-Traditional Sports Zone. This will be my depository for daily coverage of the biggest events in sports somewhat obscure to most Americans, a supplement to the regular weekly column here at Informative Sports. I’ve been trying to keep up with things, but I can’t guarantee I’ll touch everything. Too many fires alight right now to keep all of them stoked, but we’ll try to poke at all of them at least a little... 
 

First things first, I’d like to draw a parallel here. Tom Boonen won his way back into the Tour de France when the Court of Arbitration for Sport in France reversed the decision by ASO to exclude Boonen from the race for his second positive cocaine test -- a test that, under World Anti-Doping Agency code, does not earn a suspension for its detection out of competition. Unfortunately, he is a shell of the rider who dominated the 2007 Tour de France and took the green sprinter’s jersey that year. The Belgian former world champion has not been in any sort of form to compete on able footing against Mark Cavendish, who is making his own mockery of this Tour with (as of this posting) four stage victories already and his own clutch on the green jersey. 

Around the same time Boonen was dealing with his cocaine positive, so too was another athlete facing sanction for a cocaine derivative in a test sample. Richard Gasquet, the 22-year-old French tennis pro who most memorably made the semifinals at Wimbledon in 2007. Knocking off three countrymen in a row that year -- including 2008 Australian Open finalist Jo-Wilfried Tsonga in the fourth round -- Gasquet survived 2009 Wimbledon finalist Andy Roddick in a five-set quarterfinal thriller before bowing out to eventual champion Roger Federer. His game has been on and off ever since, and he has only made one quarterfinal since his magical run on the lawns of the All-England Lawn Tennis and Croquet Club, Wimbledon. 

So it wasn’t nearly as breaking a news story as when a champion of Boonen’s caliber was busted. Figure, too, that Boonen was facing his second straight year of getting busted celebrating in the aftermath of winning Paris-Roubaix. But Gasquet, unlike Boonen, was facing a possible two-year ban from his sport because the sample which tested positive was taken during the Miami Masters event in March. Gasquet, protesting his innocence to the end, was ultimately exonerated today and will be allowed to return to the ATP Tour to try to resurrect his flagging career. 

It turns out that Gasquet had been out clubbing in Miami when he was “inadvertently contaminated” by cocaine after kissing an acquaintance who had been allegedly offered at the party. So when benzoylecgonine, a metabolite of cocaine, turned up in his test sample in Miami, it was no surprise that he withdrew from the draw. He continued to appeal for clemency, arguing that he is innocent of any attempt to dope. After the courts ruled in favor of Boonen and he took his place at the starting line of the 2009 Tour, it seemed only a matter of time before Gasquet would be exonerated. That day came Wednesday, when the International Tennis Federation ruled that his unintentional exposure to cocaine the night before his first-round match in Miami was an honest mistake which rendered a twelve-month ban, the proposed amount for his offense, excessive and without merit. 

So Gasquet will be free to play in the tennis world’s final Grand Slam event of the season, the U.S. Open. But like Boonen, don’t expect too much out of the Frenchman when the tour heads to Flushing Meadows. He’s simply been too concerned with matters to be in any kind of match shape prior to the tournament. Of course, he has more time than Boonen enjoyed to prepare to the best of his abilities. But considering, too, that Gasquet has never advanced beyond the fourth round of the U.S. Open, it would’ve been foolish to expect too much even if none of this fiasco had ever erupted. Even if he never wins a tournament or makes another late run in a Grand Slam, it is still nice to see justice weigh each case individually. Too often we are either too harsh on our athletes, calling for an unconditional suspension for even the most miniscule traces of a banned substance; or we are too lenient, handing out loophole-laden suspensions and failing to effectively police or even care about doping in our sports. It is nice, for a change, to see the rules of a case applied and weighed against a specific case study in a prudent and intelligent manner rarely seen in such situations. Let us hope that this example can be heeded by future courts facing this vexing conundrum... 
 

One man who has never come under suspicion of anything other than fiercely dominant performances is the obvious man to beat going into golf’s penultimate major of the season. Tiger Woods, still chasing after Jack Nicklaus and the record for the most majors in history, comes to the Ailsa Course at Turnberry in southwest Scotland as the overwhelming favorite to take his fifteenth major championship. Three times before the course has hosted The (British) Open, and all three times -- Tom Watson in 1977, Greg Norman in 1986, and Nick Price in 1994 -- a player at the top of the game has won the Claret Jug. Still smarting after missing what many said was a golden opportunity at the U.S. Open, Woods will be hungry for a success at the heart of the season. 

We cannot discount Padraig Harrington, though, because after all the Irishman is the two-time defending champion of The Open. And a whole host of young guns will be there aiming for Woods as well. He may come in with all the expectation in the world, but the conditions are looking beautiful in Scotland for the tournament, and it appears that the weather will not be a factor on a course that requires concentration and a deft touch. It would be surprising in no way to see a first-time champion, or a guy like Geoff Ogilvy, who has experience closing out a major (2006 U.S. Open) and has been surging this season. He took the World Golf Championships-Accenture Match Play Championship as well as the season-opening Mercedez-Benz Championship. He’s taken four top-ten finishes and is sixth in the money race, with over $3.3 million already earned this season. I’ll take him as my dark-horse candidate... he’s bound to win a major this year, since he also won another Match Play title prior to his 2006 U.S. Open victory. 

Or, perhaps, one out of the new crop of duffers will earn his way into the annals of history with a crowd-stunning victory of his own. I’ve ranted on ceaselessly about how any sport survives only when charismatic new stars emerge from its ranks. Tiger will not be around forever, just as the Golden Bear couldn’t fend off the ravages of time. For now, at least, it might be the Era of Eldrick. But a new leaf might be turning on the links, so it will be a fun one to watch this weekend. Stay tuned... we’ll surely have a lot of news to cover from Turnberry next week... 
 

There was plenty of news from Indianapolis, where all the American stars of the pool gathered for the U.S. National Championships, the springboard for those with worldly intentions to qualify for the World Championships to be held in Rome in August. While most of the talk obviously centered on Michael Phelps returning to top-level form after his overblown bong-ripping escapades saw his sit out of the pool. His 100-meter butterfly clocked in at a new world record, 50.22 seconds, a mark long coveted by the man from Baltimore. He also qualified in the 200-meter butterfly, an event where he says he has “unfinished business”, along with the 200-meter freestyle. He was forced to pull out of the 100-meter qualifiers with neck stiffness toward the end of the meet, but he has the potential, with three relays added into his program for good measure, to set his career mark at twenty world championship titles. 

There were plenty of other amazing stories in Indianapolis, though, that merit attention. Take, for instance, the case of Eric Shanteau. Now Pat Forde of ESPN.com saw fit to write about Shanteau... about a year after I had an eye on the kid. Now fully in remission from the testicular cancer which he discovered prior to last year’s Olympic Trials, Shanteau was looking to return to the international stage after last summer’s improbable run. He finished the preliminary heats with the fastest time in the country -- 59.89 seconds, only the second American to swim the 100-meter breaststroke in less than one minute. In the finals, he was pipped by another revelation, 27-year-old Mark Gangloff of Auburn University and Buffalo, New York. Gangloff became the third American to dip below a minute in the event, setting a new American record of 59.01 in the process. With Brendan Hansen not at the Championships and last year’s winner Scott Spann finishing in a distant fourth behind Gangloff, Shanteau and Marcus Titus. But Shanteau will be on the big stage once again, ever improving and with a newfound lease on life. 

Aaron Piersol was also a big winner, claiming back his world records in both the 100- and 200-meter backstroke events while punching his ticket to Rome. The 100 he retook from Aschwin Wildeboer Faber, the 23-year-old Spaniard who held the record time for exactly one week, the time from the Spanish national championships to the American version of the event. In setting the new mark at 51.94 seconds, Piersol became the first swimmer in history to go under 52 seconds in the distance. In the 200-meter race, Piersol faced the foe who had taken his record -- countryman Ryan Lochte, who set the new pace en route to his gold medal in Beijing in the discipline. Both lagged behind preliminary leader Tyler Clary, a 20-year-old up-and-comer from Redlands, California who holds the NCAA Division I record in the short-course version of the 200. But Clary was simply not experienced enough in the final to take on the two veterans. On the day, it was Piersol who proved stronger, eclipsing Lochte’s Olympic mark by 0.86 seconds to 1:53.08. With both his records now back in his possession, Piersol will head to Rome the odds-on favorite to capture both events. 

American hopefuls will meet their counterparts from around the world in about a month, hoping to dominate the competition. Unfortunately, we will not be able to see Australia’s Eamon Sullivan, the world record holder in both the 50- and 100-meter freestyle. But Alain Bernard will be there (though not in his ultra-fast Arena suit, which FINA has declared does not comply with suit regulations... which is why Sullivan still holds his records), and so will Wildeboer Faber. There will be a pool full of stories just begging to be written as we get closer to the championships... 
 

Championship season is upon us. Jeremy Horgan-Kobelski is looking at the potential of sweeping the three endurance mountain biking events -- marathon, cross-country and short-track -- at this weekend’s U.S. Mountain Bike Nationals. With the Stars and Stripes already on his back from the marathon championships last month, he has a quality chance at sweeping all three jerseys with the form he’s currently enjoying. But while he is dominant at the moment, there is no guarantee that he will be able to hold off a field that includes Adam Craig and Ryan Trebon (last year’s cross-country and short-track winners respectively), Jeremiah Bishop, and European stalwart Todd Wells. But there is precedent on Horgan-Kobelski’s side -- he took both titles at Mammoth, California in 2004. While all the American road stars head into the Vosges region of France this weekend, the boys of the dirt will square off for the stars and bars in Granby, Colorado. 

Either way you look, there’s exciting cycling action... and if that’s not your thing, the world’s oldest golf tournament has to stand for something. The pool is heating up in Rome, where tensions between men and women competing for national pride and personal glory will undoubtedly bring their A-game. Tennis’ stars are preparing for the final Grand Slam of the season, their last chance to win big this year coming on the hard courts of Queens. And even Rachel Alexandra, the Preakness-winning filly, got back to her winning ways with Calvin Borel in the mount as she dominated her fellow females at the Mother Goose Stakes at Belmont Park by nearly twenty lengths. 

You can find worthy champions seemingly anywhere you look right now. While one sphere of influence might dominate your consciousness at any given moment, it doesn’t hurt to look up once in a while to take in the entire scope of the sports landscape. Thrills abound, and the tumult and the roar flow freely among the spectators of all continents. There’s something out there to grab everyone if they are only willing to allow themselves to be drawn into the contest...